Cutting the Hedge
I've just sat down after spending the last hour trimming the hedge at the front of our house. Of course I write “trimming”, but the real scenes were probably more closely aligned with the jungle hacking antics of the Livingston expedition in the jungle a hundred or so years ago.
We have an electric hedge trimmer. Rather a long electric hedge trimmer. Now I'm sure if you're Conan the Barbarian you can wield it like a mighty broadsword, vanquishing the hedge as you go. If you're a software developer who last did an arm workout twenty five years ago – not so much. My forearms are pumped full of blood at the moment – so much so that I'm finding it quite difficult to type. Who could have guessed that this finely tuned software developer physique would have trouble cutting a few yards of hedgerow?
I'm sure I'll recover.
The up-side of cutting the hedge is that I can now see people approaching the house. The downside of cutting the hedge is that people can now see me watching them approach the house. No more peeping in plain sight for me. Maybe I need some net curtains, so I can appear as a shadowy figure behind them, and scare small children in the neighbourhood. I suppose that only works until I need to trudge towards the corner shop for milk, coffee, or whatever else. “Oh, that's that man that lives there.”
Please, don't let anybody that lives nearby know that I know my way around computers. I've been “that guy” before. It's a thankless task – trying to explain to the third person this week that Windows 10 is designed to work with a Microsoft account – and no, they don't track you – and no, they don't read your email, and no, the right wing news outlet you listen to isn't right, and no, you can't inject bleach, and no, no, no... It gets tiring after a while.
I just tell everybody to buy Chromebooks these days.
In other news, the new power supply for the stricken PC across the room arrives later this afternoon. With a little luck I'll put it back together, switch it on, and all will be well with the world once again. If not, well... that will be the end of that. I have a horrible feeling it really will be the end of that, but we'll wait and see. Isn't it funny that as you get older, you become every-so-much more cycnical about just about everything involving luck.
p.s. I have been bowled over by the number of people that have signed up to receive the blog posts by email. Who knew the blogosphere was so disenfranchised with the status quo? If you would also like to divorce yourself of endless comments, likes, and so on, visit https://jonathanwrotethis.substack.com and subscribe. If you try it out too, let me know – I'l sign up to your writing too :)